A Senate Finance Committee report released on December 6 highlights the actions of a cardiologist who reportedly may have implanted 585 stents that were medically unnecessary. The procedures, carried out from 2007 through mid-2009, cost the Medicare program $3.8 million (http://tiny.cc/317bm).

The Senate committee report detailed the actions of Mark Midei, MD, who performed the stenting at St Joseph Medical Center in Towson, Md. It also considered the relationship between Midei and Abbott Laboratories, whose stents were used most often by the cardiologist in the last half of 2008 and first half of 2009, noting that after Midei was barred from practicing at St Joseph, he was hired by Abbott and was paid $30 623 for consulting work. After Midei was stripped of his privileges at St Joseph, he began work at the Prince Salman Heart Center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the report said.